Minority Rights Case Study: Macedonians in Greece

Zhidas Daskalovski

Upsurge of nationalism in Eastern Europe after the revolutionary changes
in 1989-1990 has provoked a debate over minority and human rights issues.
Some political scientists and especially Western based journalists and
media have pointed out that Western World’s practices dealing with minority
issues are fundamentally different from those of the emerging democracies
in Eastern Europe. They have stressed that unlike the Western World’s civic
notion of national identity, Eastern Europeans have based their nationality
on ethnicity, potentially dangerous form of sentiments. Will Kymlika, however,
has rebuked this myth underlining the fact that both Western, as well as
Eastern European states engage in essentially the same type of nation building
process that includes state implementation of an official language in public
administration and education, specific naturalization policies, etc. Kymlika
has emphasized the need for the recognition of minority rights and the
implementation of new models of ethnocultural justice. In order to examine
whether a state pursuits liberal policies in its nation building process,
and promotes ethnocultural justice, Kymlika has devised a detailed list
of liberal and iliberal nation building practices. If the check list is
applied to real cases one can see in which areas a given states pursues
more liberal policies and in which it follows illiberal course. In my paper
I will first present Kymlika’s itemized index of nation building policies,
and then apply to it the case study of the Macedonian minority in Greece.
My aim is to find out what kind of policies has the Greek state implemented
in its nation building, examine how they have affected the Macedonian minority
in this country, and see what kind of responses they have incited. Thus
my paper will outline both the Greek official attitudes toward the Macedonian
minority and the responses of the latter to the Greek nation building.

According to Kymlika liberal states should use a relatively low level
of coercion promoting a common national identity. Thus, liberal states
may not provide public funds for minority language schools but they should
not forbid existence of privately funded minority schools. Secondly, Kymlika
notes that a liberal state has a restricted notion of the public space,
thus giving the possibility of wide range minority activities in the private
sphere of life. Thus, a state may insists that the majority language is
used exclusively in the parliament but it would not ask minority union
meetings or their weddings to be conducted in the official language. Thirdly,
liberal states should allow individuals or political parties who challenge
the ‘official’ national identity to run and hold office if elected. As
Kymlika writes, "advocating such changes is not seen as disloyalty, or
even if it is seen as disloyal, this is not viewed as sufficient grounds
for restricting democratic rights."

Furthermore, Kymlika states that a typical liberal country has a more
open definition of a national community. Opposed to the ‘blood and soil’
principle for granting citizenship, liberal states allow integration of
members of other races, ethnicities and religions to the national community.
As a result of this inclusiveness, liberal states have a loose conception
of citizenship centered usually on the shared language used in wide range
of societal institutions (schools, media, law, government, economy and
so on). The nation is understood not as the supreme value for individuals
but merely as an instrumental value for promoting individual interests.
Liberal nations are ready to learn and adopt from other cultures, they
do not fear interaction with other states and nations. Moreover, liberal
states accept the concept of dual national identity. Therefore they would
allow celebrations of holidays by members of the nation who do not belong
to the majority ethnicity. Finally, and most importantly, liberal states
let the national minorities engage in their own process of nation building
that might include the right for self government and, under certain circumstances,
federal status. Consequently, minorities in a liberal state that are faced
with the nation building process by the majority nation, opt either for
integration into the majority culture or for self government rights. Very
rarely they choose the third basic option of self isolation and marginalization.

At this moment I will turn to my case study; first I will very generally
outline the issue by presenting historical data and then turn to the actual
topic of discussion minority rights and il(liberal) nation building policies.
The Balkan Wars (1912-1913) marked the end of the Ottoman empire and the
"liberation" of Macedonia. This liberation resulted in the partition of
Macedonia among Serbia (Vardar Macedonia), Bulgaria (Pirin Macedonia) and
Greece (Aegean Macedonia). After the First Word War and the 1919 Versailles
Treaty, which only reaffirmed the new territorial divisions of Macedonia,
all three Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria, began a process of forceful assimilation
that can be only ascribed in the terms of ethnic and cultural genocide.
The methods of all three states were more or less similar, but it seems
that Greece was the most successful in its "governmentally sponsored nation
building activities". Forced education in Greek language, raping, killing,
exodus, in short physical and psychological terror; characterize best the
situation of the ethnic Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia in the following
decades. Today, new term has entered the international political vocabulary
linked to the recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, ethnic cleansing.
United Nations define ethnic cleansing as systematic elimination by the
ethnic group exercising control over a given territory of members of other
groups. However, only the term is new, all the rest was invented in the
beginning of this century in Macedonia. In other words, not only Greece,
Serbia, and Bulgaria wanted to assimilate ethnic Macedonians but they also
wanted to destroy any cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic legacy
of Macedonians that lived there.

History of the Problem

Given time constraints, this paper will only concentrate on the Greek
‘nation building policies’ in Aegean Macedonia. The ethnic map of Macedonia
was significantly changed in 1919 when Greece and Bulgaria signed a convention
for ‘exchange of populations’. As a result, around 60,000 Macedonians "voluntarily"
left Greece and settled in Bulgaria. Soon after, in 1924, a similar convention
was signed between Greece and Turkey. While 40,000 Macedonians, together
with around 300,000 Turks, left Greece, around 700,000 Greeks from Turkey,
permanently settled in Aegean Macedonia. The result of this shift of populations
was disastrous for Macedonians; they became a minority in the region where
before the Balkan Wars they were majority of the population. Therefore,
in the initial years of rule over Aegean Macedonia, Greek government has
applied unjust practices as regards nation building and protection of minority
rights are concerned; namely, Greece has systematically engaged in a policy
of settling ethnic Greeks into the historic territory of the Macedonian
minority while ‘persuading’ members of the Macedonian community to leave
their homeland. Although Greece had a legal right to pursue such policies,
still as Kymlika argues the deliberate and large scale settlements of immigrants
into the historic territory of the minority is a grave injustice.

Between World Wars I and II, Macedonians were subject of violent campaign
of assimilation and denationalization. During the interwar period Greece
declined to recognize Macedonians as a national minority, Macedonians were
labeled as Greeks who spoke Slavic. The aim of this policy was to ‘Hellenise’,
i.e. make Greek, Aegean Macedonia by erasing the cultural and national
heritage of the Macedonians and by moulding the Macedonian identity into
Greek one. Place names (all names of cities, towns, and villages) were
changed from Macedonian to Greek (1926) and all Old Slavic inscriptions
from churches were erased (1927) while the use of Macedonian was also strictly
prohibited. In 1929 a legal Act was issued On the Protection of Public
Order, whereby each demand for nationality rights was regarded as high
treason. Thus, Macedonians who demanded minority status could be legally
imprisoned.

The illiberal policy of the Greek government reached its climax under
the Metaxas monarchist-fascist dictatorship (1936-1941) when even the private
use of Macedonian language was forbidden. Defiance of this ban produced
Draconian measures, where a great numbers of Macedonians were convicted
and deported to desolate Greek islands. While evening schools were opened
in which adult Macedonians were taught Greek, ethnic Macedonian localities
were flooded with posters that read "speak Greek". Even more, a law that
was adopted in 1936 forced Macedonians to change their personal names into
the Greek ones. Thus, Jovan Filipov, became Yannis Fillipidis, and Lena
Stoikov became Elena Stoikou. As we can see, in the interwar period Greece
applied remarkably illiberal policies vis-a-vis its Macedonian minority-
not only Macedonians were denied recognition, even worse, they were forcefully
being Hellenized, i.e., forced to change their names and learn Greek, while
being prohibited to use Macedonian even in the realm of their homes.

During World War Two, in a partisan struggle, ethnic Macedonians in
Vardar Macedonia won the right for a free federate republic within the
framework of the Yugoslav federation. The creation of the Yugoslav Socialist
Republic of Macedonia also had large influence on the Macedonians who lived
in Greece. Toward the end of World War II, Aegean Macedonians formed the
Slav National Liberation Front (SNOF) which joined the Greek communist
forces in order to resist the fascist occupation of Aegean Macedonia. However,
during the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) fought between the forces of the
right wing- monarchist Greek government, and the communist Democratic Army
of Greece (DAG), most of the Macedonians joined the latter. In April 1945,
Aegean Macedonians formed the National Liberation Front (NOF), Macedonian
political organization that was one year later integrated into the DAG.
In order to attract Macedonians to fight on their side, the Greek communists
guaranteed ethnic Macedonians a minority status and promised them a large
autonomy of Aegean Macedonia within the auspices of a Greek communist state.
However, in 1949 DAG forces were defeated and a new exodus of Macedonians
from Greece followed. The number of those who fled is estimated at 100,000
including 28,000 children. In fact, the victory of the Greek monarchists
meant that Macedonians in Greece would remain unrecognized as a minority
group. Moreover, in 1947, the Greek government adopted a law that deprived
all those who that had fought against the government in the Civil War,
thus including many ethnic Macedonians, from their citizenship and their
property.

Immediately after the end of the civil war
Greek authorities attempted to assimilate those ethnic Macedonians who
remained in Greece. In the 1950’s, the state opened many kindergartens
in the mostly Macedonian populated, Florina district, where the Macedonian
children were instructed only in Greek and not in Macedonian. In addition,
the ‘best and the brightest’ Macedonian pupils were -and have since been-
sent to boarding schools far away from their places of origin in Aegean
Macedonia. Furthermore, ethnic Macedonians could hardly find a job in the
civil sector and their children were, reportedly, being discouraged from
having a complete secondary education. In 1959 Greece went so far in its
illiberal treatment of the Macedonian minority as to pressure ethnic Macedonian
villages to stage public swearing-in ceremonies in which they pledged never
to use again the Macedonian language. During the military dictatorship
in Greece (1967-1974), many Macedonian villages near the border had been
considered as a restricted zone, where the movement of the citizens to
and out of that zone was controlled by the authorities In this period Greek
officials "resettled in Macedonian-populated areas many Greeks with ‘healthy
national consciousness’ often giving them the property of the Macedonians
who had fled the country".

Moreover, in 1962 the legal Act 4234
was issued which stipulated that persons who were stripped of their Greek
citizenship were banned from returning to Greece. In 1969 a legal Act was
issued to allow the settlement by ethnic Greeks of Macedonian property
left behind. The situation in Aegean Macedonia in the following years was
characterized by oppression of the ethnic Macedonians on all levels. Since
Macedonians were denied recognition, all their basic human rights were
restricted to them. This situation forced many Macedonians to emigrate
from Greece to Australia and Canada. In 1982, Greece adopted a law that
allows return to Greece of all political refuges from the Civil War except
those who are not "Greeks by genus" (i.e. of Greek origin). Therefore,
those refugees who were not Greek by origin,
that is the Macedonians, were not allowed to return. In addition "[s]uccessive
Greek governments have claimed that these people

are agents deeply involved with ‘Skopjan’[Republic
of Macedonia, that is] anti-Greek propaganda activities." Until early 1980’s
Macedonians have also been discriminated against in the hiring in the public
sector. A leaked secret National Security Service memorandum of 16/2/1982
(reg. no. 6502/7-50428), at the hands of GHM and MRG-Greece, recommended,
besides the non-return of the Macedonian political refugees, also the hiring
of non-Macedonian-speakers in the civil service and, ‘especially’ in schools.
Although to a lesser extent, the discrimination of ethnic Macedonians in
the public sector is still present. In 1985, law was adopted enabling
the political refuges to reclaim their property, and again, Macedonians
were excluded on the basis that they are not Greek. Today, those Macedonians
who are born in Greece and live in other countries can not even travel
in Greece and visit their relatives. After the Greek Civil War, around
100,000 Macedonians fled the country. The estimated number of Macedonians
that stayed in the country was 200,000. However, the last Greek census
(1951) that listed ‘Slav speakers’, i.e., Macedonians gave a number of
41,000 Macedonians in Greece. Even today the Greek government denies the
existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece. Human Rights activists project
their number to be 200,000 while the United States Department of State
gives of estimates around 50,000 Macedonians that still live in Greece.
All this facts document that, in the period after the Second World War,
Greece has continued with the practice of pursuing illiberal nation building
policies vis-a-vis ethnic Macedonians.

Recent Developments

The Greek government official stance towards all its minorities can
be simply summarized in one sentence: "In Greece there is only one minority
recognized by international treaty, it is a religious minority, the Muslims
of Thrace, it is blossoming enjoying its full rights, and makes up some
1.5 per cent of the total population." In 1993,
the then prime minister of Greece Constantine Mitsotakis, in an interview
to the Greek Newspaper Economicos
Tachydromos stated that there were no Macedonians in Greece:

"Show me where this minority is. There are bilingual Greeks;

maybe some very few[among them] do not have a Greek national

consciousness. [But] no one speaks any more officially
about a

Macedonian minority."

Moreover, speaking about the Greek Macedonian diplomatic relations Mr.
Mitsotakis admitted even more explicitly that the real problem with the
recognition of the Republic of Macedonia was the implicit admission that
a respective minority existed in Greece

:"I understood the Skopje
issue from the very beginning in its real dimension.

…The problem for me was to avoid the emergence of a second
minority problem

in Western Macedonia. (...) For me, the aim had always
been that that Republic

should clearly state that there is no Slavomacedonian
minority in Greece and

to commit itself through international treaties to stop
all irredentist propaganda

against Greece. That was they key in the Greek-Skopjan
[Macedonian] dispute."

From these Greek official attitude one can discern the position of Macedonians
in Greece- according to the Greek government they simply do not exist.
Greece admits that in Aegean Macedonia there are people who are different,
and but they are continuously regarded as a ‘Slavophone Hellenes with a
Greek national consciousness’, who beside the Greek language also speak
some ‘Slavic idiom’. Thus, Macedonians are denied even the right to freely
express themselves as Macedonians, and if they do, they are prosecuted.
Although officially it does not recognize the existence of the Macedonians,
or for that matter the existence of any other ethnic minority, Greece still
continues with its assimilatory strategy. Thus, for example, in 1987 all
parents in Aegean Macedonia were obliged to send their 2 and 3 year old
children to "integrated kindergartens." The aim was obvious- to prevent
Macedonian children from learning the Macedonian language and culture at
home. This ruling was not implemented elsewhere in Greece.

Minority Responses

Due to the ruthless nature of the Greek nation building process, ethnic
Macedonians have recently mobilized in defense of their rights. Today there
are several Macedonian organizations in Greece that fight for the preservation
and promotion of Macedonian identity and culture (Rainbow political party;
Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Greece; Macedonian Movement for Balkan
Prosperity). All these organizations demand recognition of the Macedonian
minority in Greece and protection of its minority rights. Macedonian
activists have never raised sensitive issues like autonomy or secession;
on the contrary, the Macedonian Human Rights Movement, in a 20/7/1993 letter
to the Prime Minister asking for a treatment of the Macedonians in Greece
similar to the one the Prime Minister had just claimed from the Albanian
authorities for the Greeks in Albania, stated clearly that the Macedonians
are "an inseparable part of Greece (...) an ethnic Macedonian minority
which is a constituent element of the Greek state." Kosta Gotsis,
a member of the Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity, summarized the
demands of the Macedonian minority in a statement given to the Human Rights
Watch/Helsinki fact-finding mission in 1994:

"We want all the rights of people who have their own

identity and culture, according to CSCE declarations,
we are entitled

to these rights. One of the most important of these is
the right to have

our children educated in their mother tongue. It’s very
important to save

the language. We don’t care whether all the subjects are
taught in

Macedonian or there is just one hour a day of instruction
in

Macedonian-we don’t want a utopia. If we are allowed to
establish private

schools that teach in Macedonian, that’s okay. If the
Greek

government provides one or two hours of instruction in
Macedonian,

that’s okay." "Right now we can’t get permission to teach
a class

in Macedonian, because, according to the Greek government,
the language

doesn’t exist. To set up a school teaching a foreign language,
you need a

license and a certificate. But since the government says
the Macedonian

In the past years, however, the activities of Macedonian minority organizations
have been constrained by Greek authorities.

Greek Government Reactions to the Minority Demands

Macedonian human and minority rights movements have been actively campaigning
to persuade the Greek government and the international community to recognize
the existence of the Macedonian minority in Greece, and acknowledge their
basic human and minority rights. However, the Greek government has not
only failed to hear the pleas of Macedonian human right activists who fight
for recognition of the Macedonian minority and improvement of its status,
but even worse, it has harassed them. In June 1990 at the Copenhagen Conference
on Human Rights (CHD), an Aegean Macedonian Human Rights delegation spoke
openly about the situation of the Macedonian minority in Greece. Upon their
return to Greece, two Macedonian human rights campaigners from Aegean Macedonia
experienced official State harassment. One, Hristo Sideropoulos, was transferred
through his work to Kefalonia, several hundred miles from his homeplace.
The other participant, Stavros Anastasiadis, was conferred discriminatory
tax penalties and dismissed from his job.

As the Greek Helsinki Committee has reported, Macedonian minority activists
are continuously harassed by the authorities; they are often followed by
national security or secret service agents, they are repeatedly treated
as agents of Republic of Macedonia by authorities and media alike, without
ever the latter providing any substantive claim or -in the case of most
media-publishing disclaimer or protest letters sometimes sent by the activists.
Thus, the conservative party deputy Virginia Tsouderou, accused some groups
of Macedonians of their "willingness to serve another country (...) [and]
along with the Skopjans make this cultural assault and genocide to the
detriment of Greece."

Moreover, on April 1, 1993 Hristos Sideropoulos and Anastasios Boulis,
the Macedonian human rights activists who founded the Macedonian Human
Rights Movement of Greece, were put on trial after their comments about
the existence of the Macedonian minority were published in the Greek magazine
ENA, in March 1992. Based on the interview and on Sideropolous’ comments
at the OSCE meeting both were charged with ‘spreading false information
and rumors that might cause anxiety and fear to the citizens’ and were
sentenced to five months imprisonment on the basis of Article 191 and 192
of the Greek Penal Code. After considerable pressure from international
human rights organizations, on January 28th 1994,, the Greek
authorities overturned the conviction.

Furthermore, according to report by Greek
Helsinki Committee, activists of the Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity
who signed in 1992 a petition asking for Macedonians’ rights faced reactions
against them that included extreme psychological pressure on their relatives,
including their children in small villages, slandering graffiti, removal
of an officer from elected office in an association for ‘having damaged
its reputation’, loss of clientele which was threatened so as not to patronize
a private business, etc. Greek authorities have also discouraged printing
houses to print Macedonian activists’ newspapers and pamphlets. Many issues
of the Macedonian minority newspapers Zora never reach their addressees,
as they are thrown away at the post office.

Moreover, ethnic Macedonian activists have met with difficulties organizing
cultural activities such as Macedonian folklore dance and song festivals.
Since Macedonian identity and language are not recognized, even singing
Macedonian songs is considered a forbidden activity. Thus,
public singing and dancing of Macedonian songs and dances has often been
broken up by police, as such a cultural activity "remains a nationally
suspect if not anti-Greek act". On July 20, 1990 at the village
of Meliti near Lerin (Florina) an ethnic Macedonian folk festival was broken
up by force by Greek authorities and police. On Saturday 26th
of July, 1997 a Macedonian folk festival was held in the village of Olimpiada,
Aegean Macedonia. The Greek police authorities however pressured the organizers
to cancel this manifestation of Macedonian culture. The president of the
organizing committee and the president of the village council were interrogated
twice by the local authorities as to the ethnic Macedonian character of
the festival in an attempt to stop the festival taking place.

Furthermore, initiatives to register ethic Macedonian cultural institutions,
have been refused by the Greek government. In 1990 the High Court of Florina
under decision 19/33/3/1990 refused to register a Centre for Macedonian
Culture. An appeal on August 9 the same year against the decision was also
refused. In May 1991 a second appeal was refused by the High Court of Appeals
in Thessaloniki. In June 1991 the Supreme Administrative Council of Greece
in Athens dismissed a further appeal. The Macedonians activists who intended
to establish this cultural institution filed a complaint against Greece
at the European Commission of Human Rights challenging the decisions of
the Greek courts, at all levels, which rejected registration of their association
since 1990. In the summer of 1996 the court declared admissible the complaint
against Greece.

At the European court the Greek state attempted to refute the applicants’
claim by arguing that no such minority existed in Greece and called the
Greek Macedonians "Slavs of Skopje," claiming that the purpose of their
complaint was solely to "obtain a ruling by the Convention organs that
the name Macedonia belongs to the recently established Slav nation of Skopje."
In addition, the Greek government claimed that the applicants wanted "to
establish an association on behalf of the minority of the Slavs of Skopje
in order to protect the cultural traditions of Skopje, which are in reality
of Bulgarian and Yugoslav origin. The Government affirm that such a minority
and such cultural traditions do not exist in Greece." Despite Greek objections,
in the summer of 1998 the European Court of Justice convicted Greece for
the violation of the freedom of association (Article 11 of the European
Convention), because the Greek courts did not allow the establishment of
the "Home of Macedonian Civilization" (as translated in English by the
European Court). The Court considered the aims of the Macedonian associations
clear and legitimate.

In May of 1998, a round-table discussion took place near Florina, organized
by the Rainbow party and attended by over 100 Greeks and Macedonians from
Greek Macedonia. The meeting was the first of its kind to take place in
this minority area. According to Greek Helsinki Committee, the participants
were not allowed to hire publicly-owned meeting rooms in Florina- local
hotels refused to give rooms to the guests. Meanwhile Alexander Popovski,
an invited representative of an association of Aegean Macedonians living
in Bitola (Republic of Macedonia) was refused entry to the country. Furthermore,
"during the meeting itself, financial police controlled the ‘taverna’ where
it was held and fined the establishment for not having issued receipts
for the drinks - a technically valid charge, but the first such control
to have been carried out at that establishment".

Another example of Greek resistance to accept the existence of the Macedonian
identity and Macedonian language is the events that took place in Florina
on September 8, 1995. On this date, the members of the Rainbow Party, opened
an office in the city of Florina. The opening of the office was marked
by the erection of a sign written in both the Greek and Macedonian identifying
the premises as the local office of the party. As a consequence, the office
was attacked and sacked by a mob, led by among others, the mayor of Florina.
The district’s public prosecutor pressed no
charges against the persons involved in this violent incident, but, instead
pressed charges against the Rainbow leadership for ‘incitement to disturb
the peace through disharmony, through the use of the Macedonian language
and the Macedonian name of the city’. There was no condemnation of these
events by the government, the country’s political parties and media - with
a few rare exceptionsamong the latter.

Before the sacking the prosecutor
had ordered the removal of the inscription and had announced the indictment
of Rainbow leaders for having incited division of the people through the
use of the Macedonian language on their sign. As a result, four Rainbow
members were put on a trial for public use of their mother tongue. Despite
the fact that the Greek government was internationally condemned by many
human rights groups for this prosecution of Macedonian activists, the trial
was initiated on 14th October. The Rainbow leaders were accused
of "causing and inciting mutual hatred among the citizens" (article 192
of the penal code) because they had hung up a sign with Slavic text outside
their office in Florina. Although the trial was postponed on several occasions
the Greek Court finally heard the Rainbow case on September 15, 1998. Due
to a repeated and immense international pressure from NGO’s such as the
Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada, Greek Helsinki Monitor, and
Amnesty International, the Rainbow Party was been acquitted.

Further case of Greek illiberal attitude toward the Macedonian minority
occurred on 17th of February this year. On that day the Greek
border authorities at the crossing between Republic of Macedonia and Greece,
confiscated from the Rainbow leader Traianos Pasois two calendars written
in the Macedonian language with pictures from Northern Greek cities, cited
by their Slavic names. Although Pasois brought charges against the officers
the public prosecutor of Florina rejected them as unfounded stating that
the officers had acted on orders of "their superiors and the competent
ministry." The prosecutor added that the seized material "cannot be allowed
in the country and should be returned to its country of origin as it is
propaganda material that may disturb the relations between our country
and the neighboring country of Skopje." Furthermore, the public prosecutor
indicted Pasois for having violated article 191 by "disseminating false
information or rumors which may cause […] disruption of the international
relations of the country" and initiated judical proceedings against him.
Although the original date was set for March 18, the trial was postponed
and rescheduled for November 18, 1998, thus keeping Pasois in a limbo for
over two and a half years. Finally, after a considerate international pressure
Pasois was acquitted in a trial in late November.

The ordeal of a priest, Father Nikodimos
Tsarknias, is indicative of how far persecution can go when the state and
the church coordinate it. Father Nikodomos Tsarknias is a monk of
the Orthodox Christian faith. He is a citizen of Greece and is a member
of the ethnic Macedonian minority. From 1973 until 1991 Tsarknias was an
ordered member of the Greek Orthodox Church. He
was one of the first Macedonian human rights activists and was publishing,
through his sister, the newspaper Moglena,
which reported on local problems, including minority issues. After
openly declaring his ethnic identity in 1991, and having communicated with
parishioners in the Macedonian language, Tsarknias became under pressure
of the Greek ecclesiastical authorities to resign. Moreover, from then
on, he has been continually harassed by Greek government officials. Thus,
in July, 1992 Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias, and a parishioner, Photios
Tzelepis, were issued with a ‘Writ of Summons’ to appear in the Magistrate's
Court of Thessaloniki. The priest was charged with insulting his Archbishop
and was also accused of being a homosexual and a Skopjan (Republic of Macedonia)
spy. However, a KYP (Greek Secret Service) report revealed that the minor
charge in the Summons was a pretext to harass the priest for his human
rights activism. The report stated that the authorities "did not find the
courage to say that they expelled him out of the church for his antihellenic
stance and to ask for his committal to trial for high treason but instead,
they removed him with the lukewarm "justification" which we reveal today
so that it will stain with shame all those who contributed to it." In March
1993, the Archimandite Nikodemos Tsarknias was defrocked and expelled from
the Greek Orthodox church for his human rights activism. In March 1993,
the Archimandite Nikodemos Tsarknias was defrocked and expelled from the
Greek Orthodox church.

Conclusion

There is no question that the Greek state’s
human rights record is in violation of the many international conventions
it has ratified, i.e. the various CSCE documents on the human dimension,
the Council of Europe’s human rights conventions, and the UN human rights
conventions. Moreover, Greece has a startling standings on Will Kymlika’s
list of practices of nation building. Greece has illiberal policies on
all the points Kymlika suggests as useful in determining the liberal extent
of the nation building policy a state pursues. Not only Greece has at the
initial moment of conquest of Aegean Macedonia, engaged in unjust policies
of resettlement and colonization of territories that were inhabited by
ethnic Macedonians, but it has continued with illiberal nation building
ever since.

Greece denies the basic right of self definition
of to its Macedonian minority. On this basis Macedonians are refused other
minority rights, such as, the right to establish cultural institutions,
minority language schooling, etc. The Greek state has a very restrictive
definition of citizenship, it does not allow for any other ethnic identity
except Greek to be bearer of a Greek citizenship. Not only Greece does
not allow any minority nation building process, but it insists on the Macedonian
minority’s acceptance of Greek identity. The illiberal policies of the
Greek state go as far as harassment of individuals who challenge the Greek
nation building myth. Thus, even human right activists, who advocate granting
minority rights to the ethnic Macedonians, have been over again harassed
by Greek state officials. Sadly enough for the ‘birth place of democracy’,
I must conclude that the Greek nation building and its minority policy
is alarmingly illiberal and destructive and should be immediately altered.